School of Meaningful Experiences (SoME), a Bengaluru based Education-Technology (EdTech) Institute was established to elevate learning and skills development among students and young adults to the next level by encouraging them to embrace the innovative idea of six Cs – confidence, curiosity, communications, collaboration, creativity, and competence. Dr. Rakesh Godhwani, SoME’s founder and IIMB alumnus, formulated the approach aimed at enhancing participants’ scientific temper and creative thinking. He was also the Head of IIMB Alumni Association from 2008 to 2014 and continues to teach at the Institute as an Adjunct Faculty of Communication.
Before becoming an educator, Rakesh worked with Wipro, Intel, and Qualcomm. His stint in both corporate and academia helped him identify a massive disconnect between practical knowledge obtained on the job and classroom education. “I have tremendous respect for the Indian education system, but is it innovative and modern enough to meet current unique challenges; I am not quite sure. Traditionally a strong emphasis was placed on sciences and mathematics, but not on developing communication, soft and other essential life skills of students. Examinations are designed to test memory retention powers of students rather than encouraging critical thinking and individual thought. Thus, many students, though educationally gifted, find themselves unable to navigate life’s myriad challenges. SoME is a fervent attempt to augment the existing educational system and turn students of the 21st century into lifelong learners by bolstering their confidence and communication skills along with creative and collaborative abilities. We want our participants to grow into competent, fearless problem solvers of tomorrow,” says Rakesh.
“SoME has continuously tailored its activities to meet the challenges arising from a fiercely unpredictable future, and also empower its students to do the same. For example, the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic has put education in jeopardy across the world, with schools scrambling to get their courses online. Students, for the foreseeable future, might be restricted to online learning. Before the pandemic struck, SoME had already started conducting most of its activities online like our latest online summer camp, which was attended by students from Baroda, Chennai, Vijayawada, Coimbatore, Ballari, Bengaluru and even Saudi Arabia and Thailand! We feel, in the face of uncertainty, we have managed to create an environment that provides a smooth learning experience to our students and will be glad to share our methodology with others,” he adds.
SoME recently closed an angel funding round led by Uday Singh, former CEO of SIS Group Enterprise. Uday is the Visualiser and Co-founder of Better Place, a blue-collar workforce management platform, and an angel investor and mentor to several other start-ups in Bengaluru. These funds will help SoME’s operational expansion, recruitment of more professionals, and improve the Institute’s overall services.
“In future, we will continue to add to our existing courses, which are designed for teenagers and young adults, working professionals and entrepreneurs between the age groups of 13 and 19 and 20 and 30, respectively. These include an online 9-weekend leadership program for working professionals, online 21-weekend leadership programme, a fun and rejuvenating summer camp, and Debato, a national debating championship for teenagers, among others,” says Rakesh.
